Liz Truss goes rogue with her 'self taught' social media skills

The former environment secretary sounded like Alan Partridge while tweeting about PMQs.

As the Conservative party seeks to use social media to appeal to young voters, one MP is making more effort than most.

Last week, Liz Truss tweeted out a picture of “a wonderful display of onions in Caxton Street”. She also used the hashtag #megabantz and claimed that her colleague Mel Stride, financial secretary to the Treasury, was “trolling” her.

Meanwhile on Instagram, the former environment secretary posted a series of snaps with overlayed with prominent text. In one ambitious post, she even tried to target the hipster vote by declaring that vape shops and vegan burger bars are “modern pioneers of British freedom”. Another post dressed up her right wing credentials as subversive. “My values are set on a pro-freedom default. I don’t like being told what to do,” she stated.

At Prime Minister’s Questions today, Truss got fired up on Twitter once again when David Lidington claimed that Labour’s ban on under-18s using dangerous sunbeds was somehow at odds with the party’s calls for under-18s to be given the vote.

As well as using the hashtag #liddersonfire, she also mimicked Alan Partridge talking about his girlfriend being 14 years younger than him - by employing a #backofthenet hashtag.

It all comes as some MPs were recently treated to classes organised by Tory HQ and run by social media professionals. But after one hack suggested that Truss might have benefited from such tuition, she hit back in no uncertain terms: